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Monday, October 16, 2006

A Slap On The Hand For A Terrorist EnablerDo we all remember Lynne Stewart? We should. She is the attorney that was convicted of providing material assistance to terrorists by ferrying messages from Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman to his followers. She was sentenced today, and as Allah points out from Hot Air that this sentence is a joke, and Yahoo News has the story:Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison on a terrorism charge for helping a client who plotted to blow up New York City landmarks communicate with his followers. Stewart, 67, could have faced up to 30 years in prison. She smiled as the judge announced his decision to send her to prison for less than 2 1/2 years."If you send her to prison, she's going to die. It's as simple as that," defense lawyer Elizabeth Fink had told the judge before the sentence was pronounced.

Stewart, who was treated last year for breast cancer, was convicted in 2005 of providing material support to terrorists. She had released a statement by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Egyptian sheik sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in plots to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt's president.

Aww, the judge felt sorry for her? He took her defense team's advice when it came to sentencing? Are you kidding me? This woman deserves a thirty year sentence. She is lucky she did not face charges of treason as she owes allegiance to the United States, and she purposefully assisted our enemy.And she definitely threw herself on the mercy of the judge in a letter she wrote to him:"The government's characterization of me and what occurred is inaccurate and untrue," she wrote. "It takes unfair advantage of the climate of urgency and hysteria that followed 9-11 and that was re-lived during the trial. I did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization."

Mixed with her trademark defiance - "I am not a traitor" - was a measure of contrition. After some soul searching, she wrote, she had concluded that a careless over-devotion to her clients - "I am softhearted to the point of self-abnegation" - was her undoing. (For those that have a problem with fifty-cent words, 'abnegation' means "self-denial." She she is doubly covered being 'soft-hearted to the point of' self, self-denial.)And for all those that like the twists and turns of this case, Byron York connected a couple of dots and he discovered that a $20,000 contribution from George Soros' Open Society Institute was made to the Stewart defense fund. How do you like those apples?Stewart is a disbarred attorney now, and it is because of her actions. She was found guilty of providing support for a terrorist organization, and for defrauding the government in her capacity as a defense attorney. It should be noted that the National Lawyers Guild threw a tizzy when they found out that surveillance and wiretaps were used to gather evidence against her. Their condemnation is noted, but it was legal; the warrants were obtained through FISA, and it was used specifically to nail her in her crimes. As someone studying to be a lawyer, I understand the concept of representing a client, but where do you draw the ethical line? The government specifically stated that no lawyer representing these people would "use [their] meetings, correspondence, or phone calls with Abdel Rahman to pass messages between third parties (including, but not limited to, the media) and Abdel Rahman". She did precisely that, which is why she was re-indicted on these charges again. This time, they stuck.The National Lawyers Guild contends that this a threat the Sixth Amendment--the right to a competent defense attorney--but I challenge back to them that a competent attorney does not pass messages back to a defendant's cronies; In this case, the terrorists following the blind Sheik. And that is especially true when the Special Administrative Measures institutted for him state, point-blank, that such actions are forbidden.Lynne Stewart got what she deserved, though I disagree with the sentence. She should have received the thirty year sentence prosecutors were seeking. Die in prison or not, I do not care. There are somethings that you do not do as a lawyer. This is one of them. What is the most sickening aspect of this whole mess is that her supporters have no problem with what she did. She stated, after her conviction outside the courthouse that "I hope it will be a wakeup call to all of the citizens of this country and all of the people who live here that you can't lock up the lawyers." Ben Johnson of Front Page Magazine kept a close eye onher trial there and here where she made the number nine spot on the "10 Most Dishonorable Americans" list. In boith articles, Mr. Johnson makes no attempt to cover his disgust at this woman. In the latter, he had this to say about Lynne Stewart:Lynne Stewart has a long track record of defending terrorists and voicing support for violence. "I don’t believe in anarchistic violence, but directed violence," she said. "Directed violence," she clarified, would be "violence directed against the institutions which perpetuate captialism, racism, and sexism, and the people who are the appointed guardians of those institutions." And apparently, this counselor has crossed the line of mere sympathy with terrorism. Stewart has been jailed for complicity in terrorism for her actions on behalf of client Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman. Rahman is the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Attorney General John Ashcroft has charged that after speaking with the blind Sheikh, Stewart conveyed a message from the terrorist to his followers. If Stanley Cohen lives through terrorists, Stewart makes sure terrorists live through her.And yet we are supposed to believe her letter of contrition to the court? I do not. This woman deserves the thirty years in jail. The judge should have his head examined for this half @$$ed sentence. She is a terrorist enabler and sympathizer, and actively worked against the rules concerning attorneys and clients, and against this government to aid and abet her client's associates. She is a disgusting piece of human refuse.Marcie

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...

A jury convicted her. It's said that she is dying of cancer. Let her die in prison! The sentence is a message to the terrorists that we don't take their actions very seriously. I'm incensed by the light sentence. Rawriter.